{"id":393640,"date":"2026-04-15T16:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/393640\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:08:09","slug":"margos-got-money-troubles-series-premiere-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/393640\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles\u2019 Series-Premiere Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Margo is an idealistic college student who chooses to have her baby despite her family and friends\u2019 concerns about how it will alter her life.
\n Photo: Apple TV\n <\/p>\n

The intro credits<\/a> for Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles are a whole vibe. We\u2019re dropped into a surreal, candy-colored pinball game, created by Peter Anderson Studio. The sequence introduces us to an alien-like princess figure. She scoots down a series of moving ramps and shifting landscapes. Her movements are smooth and assured, but she keeps getting bumped into even more precarious situations. Each time, she recalibrates her position, catching lucky breaks just as often as she fails to navigate the new gauntlet she\u2019s landed in. Eventually, she finds her way out of the maze \u2014 which happens to be a spaceship (!) \u2014 and out onto new terrain. The visual is endearing, playful, and serves as a useful allegory for the narrative we\u2019re about to be dropped into.<\/p>\n

When we first meet Margo (freshly minted Oscar-nominee Elle Fanning), she\u2019s an idealistic college girl, waiting tables by night and attending classes by day. She\u2019s a writer and a dreamer. There\u2019s a sloppy, carefree quality to her life (complimentary), and when her married lit professor (Michael Angarano) starts hitting on her, she thinks, \u201cWhy not?\u201d But this affair immediately complicates things, as she gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby. While the remainder of the series will surely delve into the myriad consequences of this decision (the titular \u201cmoney troubles\u201d), Margo remains laser-focused on the positives. The premiere episode sets Margo up in opposition to her mother, Shyanne (a pitch-perfect Michelle Pfeiffer), a woman who also had a baby in her twenties (a.k.a. Margo) with minimal support. Shyanne has been knocked around this particular pastel pinball machine before, and she\u2019s petrified of what the ride is going to do to her daughter.<\/p>\n

Based on the novel by Rufi Thorpe, Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles was adapted for television by the ever-prolific David E. Kelley. (Eagle-eyed viewers will also note that his frequent collaborator Nicole Kidman is also listed as an executive producer on the project.) Fun Fact: This is the first time Kelley has worked with his wife (Pfeiffer), and honestly, it\u2019s producing some of the best work of her career. Did y\u2019all see her epic face journey in the baby shower scene?! The emotional depth that she manages to wordlessly convey in mere seconds of screentime is truly astounding.<\/p>\n

Ostensibly, this story is about Margo, and the premiere episode basically follows her for a year as she gets pregnant, decides to keep the baby, and becomes a mother. The two people closest to her \u2014 her mother and her bestie at NYU \u2014 tell her time and time again that having this baby will derail the life she\u2019s planned for herself and severely limit what she can do in her future, but she\u2019s having none of it. Even before she gets an ultrasound, she knows in her heart that she wants this child, and she\u2019ll blow up everything she\u2019s ever wanted in exchange. Funnily enough, her mother did the same exact thing back when Margo was born. She had a one-night stand with a hottie wrestler (Nick Offerman) who sat down at her table at Hooters, and she ultimately decided to keep the baby. When Shyanne and Margo talk about this, and Margo asks if she ruined her mother\u2019s life, Shyanne softly kisses her cheek and lovingly replies, \u201cYou ruined my life so pretty.\u201d It\u2019s clear that Shyanne loves her daughter with every ounce of her being, but she\u2019s also painfully aware of what she missed out on by becoming a mother instead of pursuing other paths.<\/p>\n

Now, as a parent to two small children myself, Margo\u2019s choice stirred up a lot of feelings for me, especially because this exact narrative \u2014 a young, twenty-something woman decides to keep her baby after getting impregnated by a married professor \u2014 is also playing out on HBO\u2019s Rooster. In Rooster<\/a>, the pregnant character is auxiliary to the main narrative, but the coincidence is making me wonder why these stories are being told now, especially in a post-Dobbs world. Just like Shyanne, I was initially upset with Margo for choosing an accidental pregnancy instead of continuing to attend college and pursuing a writing career. It\u2019s absolutely unfair that having a child frequently precludes young women from following their professional dreams, but for most women, especially women from low-income families, the responsibility of motherhood quickly swallows all other ambitions. However, Margo\u2019s Got Money Troubles seems to be asking: What if it didn\u2019t?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a curious thing to watch a young woman choose to have her baby even though she knows she lives in a cruel system that is stacked against women and mothers in almost every way. Margo is one part adorably na\u00efve and two parts determined to make her life work within the parameters she sets for herself. This outlook is refreshing, even if it is ultimately couched in fantasy. I was fascinated to see Margo make all the preparations for her baby boy \u2014 stocking up on diapers, grinning at her baby shower, and shopping for a stroller with her mom \u2014 all while living with her roommates who definitely did not sign up to have a baby in their midst. We can already see Margo\u2019s small village coming together, with Shyanne and Margo\u2019s few female friends supporting her decision \u2026 even if they don\u2019t fully endorse it. One of Margo\u2019s roommates, Suzie (Thaddea Graham), is sweet, eager, and delightfully supportive of her friend. She\u2019s also obsessed with wrestling, specifically a wrestler called Jinx, the character played by Margo\u2019s dad. We\u2019ll get to the Nick Offerman of it all in future episodes, I promise. But for now, we just see him, resplendent in full wrestling regalia, howling into the sky as Suzie exercises to footage of an old match.<\/p>\n

Rounding out Margo\u2019s nascent support system is a stepfather-in-waiting, played by Greg Kinnear. Shyanne has clearly been waiting for a man to take care of her, and is (sadly) willing to bury parts of herself to attain this goal. Kenny is a pastor of an Episcopalian church, and honestly, he\u2019s a dude that most of Kinnear\u2019s other characters would laugh at.\u00a0Watching Kenny give Shyanne a sparkly cross necklace, I was reminded of Dear God, the mostly-forgotten but heartwarming Garry Marshall film that sees Kinnear\u2019s character Tom believably go from grifter to giver within a two-hour runtime. Kenny seems pretty pious, but I\u2019d love to see some of that trademark Kinnear edge somewhere in this series, so I\u2019m hoping that he\u2019s holding out on more than just an engagement ring for his hottie girlfriend.<\/p>\n

Of course, Mark is nowhere to be found in the equation of Margo\u2019s found family. It\u2019s kind of fitting that he calls her the \u201chungry ghost\u201d and then literally ghosts her when she decides to keep the baby.\u00a0 When Margo, her mother, and her giant pregnant belly eventually run into him and his entire family in the Bloomingdale\u2019s parking lot, he literally uses his son as a shield, shoos his family away, checks out Margo\u2019s mom, who passes by with the stroller, and then questions if the baby is actually his. Not all men, but definitely this asshat.<\/p>\n

Margo and her mom leave, and they get into an altercation in the car. Shyanne admits that she cannot celebrate the birth of her grandson because it means that Margo\u2019s chance at a big life will die. This is not what she wanted for her daughter. She shouts, \u201cLife will break you! This will break you!\u201d Then, both mother and daughter take a break to scream into the ether. We cut to Margo giving birth, with Shyanne at her side. \u201cYou\u2019ve really done it,\u201d she says. And the credits roll.<\/p>\n

Shyanne is right. Life does break you. Becoming a parent breaks you, over and over again! Lots of things will break you, derail your plans, or knock you down. But, like the pinball alien princess in the opening credits, we get back up again. And we find new terrain that we can explore, both scary and exciting. I\u2019m looking forward to seeing how Margo puts the pieces of her life together now that she\u2019s on planet parenthood.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Margo and her friend talk about \u201corange meal,\u201d which is orange juice and a bag of cheddar Sun Chips. I love how this is a shorthand for how close their friendship is (Margo also chats with her from the tub), but also underscores how very young and resilient they are.<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u201cBlow My Mind\u201d by Robyn soundtracks the intro sequence and, as I\u2019m sure you can tell, I\u2019m in love with it all.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Laura San Giacomo makes an appearance as Margo\u2019s manager at a local restaurant. More of her, please.<\/p>\n

\u2022 I\u2019m a big book reader, but I have not yet read the book, and I don\u2019t believe that I\u2019m going to until the show is done airing. But if you have non-spoilery book commentary, please feel free to leave it in the comments!<\/p>\n

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